Treasury

Delinquent Criminal/Civil Fines and Fees (DCF)

Since this DCF website was originally launched on September 1, 2003, the Treasury Division of the Municipality of Anchorage (MOA) has collected over $49 million of DCF cases.

The caseload of unresolved DCF cases typically includes the following fines and fees:

Criminal Fines

Traffic Citation and Minor Offense fines

Cost of Imprisonment fees

Indigent Defense fees

(Anchorage Municipal) Code Enforcement fines

The majority of the DCF caseload relates to unpaid minor offenses/traffic citations and criminal fines. Many of the DCF cases involve repeat offenders, and cases date back several years. Nearly all DCF cases involve court-ordered fines and/or default judgments. A judgment entered in a criminal case requires the payment of various charges to the Alaska Court at various due dates.

On January 1, 2008, Anchorage Ordinance AO 2007-161 (the Scofflaw Ordinance) was adopted by the Municipal Assembly, allowing for the seizure and impoundment of any vehicle driven by a person with more than $1,000 in outstanding delinquent traffic citations (a "Scofflaw"). Each year, there are approximately 1,400 names on the Scofflaw List, and approximately 600 vehicles have been removed from the streets since the ordinance was adopted, through the support and assistance of the Anchorage Police Department.

To hold Scofflaws accountable, they must face the full consequence of their unlawful driving behavior. During the first two years of the Scofflaw program, it was noted that many Scofflaws appeared to be purposefully working to avoid the full consequence of having the vehicle they were driving seized by paying just enough of their outstanding delinquent traffic fines to drop below the $1,000 threshold. In so doing, they no longer met the definition of a Scofflaw, and their names were thereby removed from the Scofflaw list.

The Administration is committed to ensuring that Scofflaws face full consequence. Accordingly, Treasury implemented a full payment policy on May 1, 2010, and stopped accepting partial, in-person payments from Scofflaws at the DCF public payment counter located in City Hall. Instead, Scofflaws are informed that they must pay all delinquent traffic fines in full to be immediately removed from the Scofflaw list. Scofflaws only able to make partial payments are directed to our 3rd party collection agency, where payment arrangements can be made.

Collection Methods

As we strive to enhance public safety and compliance with the law, we continue to explore additional collection options. Currently, the MOA mails a FINAL DEMAND letter to the last known mailing address of all debtors who have outstanding DCF cases. The balance due on the Demand letter represents the unpaid delinquent charges that have been transferred to the MOA at the time of mailing. The MOA may not send additional correspondence regarding the outstanding amount due. Since a judgment entered in a criminal case requires the payment of various charges to the Alaska Court on various due dates, it is the debtor’s responsibility to monitor the various due dates specified on the judgment. A debtor may choose to review their due dates by looking up their case on the Alaska Court System website at http://www.courtrecords.alaska.gov/. The example shown here can be found on the Financial Dockets tab of your online case record.

If payment-in-full is not made within 15 days from the date of the FINAL DEMAND, the MOA will refer any remaining balance on the DCF case to our 3rd party collection agency for collection action and reporting to the national credit bureaus, which may have a substantial negative effect on a debtor's personal credit history.

Effective January 1, 2011, 3rd party collection costs will be handled in a different manner, pursuant to Ordinance AO 2010-80. The delinquent debtor will become responsible for paying the costs associated with use of a 3rd party collection agency (cost causer/cost payer concept.) The ordinance mandates that a collection fee is to be added by the collection agency onto the balance of each DCF case referred, based on the negotiated compensation rate in the MOA's vendor contract. This will result in cost to the debtor if a DCF case is not paid in full prior to account referral.

For example:

$225.00 outstanding DCF case balance would become approximately $295.00 upon referral

Any action taken by the MOA or the collection agency can be avoided by paying the full amount owed on all outstanding DCF cases prior to the case being referred.

A DCF debtor has had many opportunities to pay the outstanding case balance, prior to referral to our 3rd party collection agency, such as paying the fine or fee:

In a timely manner to the originating department

Directly to the Court

Upon receipt of the FINAL DEMAND from the DCF section of Treasury

To determine if your case has been referred to our collection agency, click here to search the DCF Database. The database is updated on a daily basis. Case status designated by the words "At Collection Agency MSB" have been referred, and you MUST contact the collection agency directly to make a payment, as there may be additional fees associated with your case, pursuant to AO 2010-80, that are not reflected in our database.